Quarles

[tim]

The big turn around began that year, winning 5 of the last 6, I think. Also won the all time favorite football game of my life 45-44 in Charleston.

[Affirm]

When you lay it all out like that, it’s actually worse than I thought. But at least we appear sorta stable.

Good thing this forum wasn't around in the mid-90s.

Not sure we could have all survived hearing the weeping and gnashing of teeth as Bobby Johnson went 28-26 in his first 54 games. Oh, and he lost 5 of the last 6 games in 1998, including losing all of Furman's big games that season.

Bobby Johnson was 30-27 his first five seasons.

His teams would go on to win 30 of the next 39 games they played.

CCH first 5 years = 0.573 wins (31-23).
Bobby first 5 years = 0.526 wins (30-27).
Bobby next 39 games 0.769 wins (30-9).
****I look forward to seeing, as soon as possible, our next 0.769 cumulative wins record over ANY 3 or 4 consecutive seasons!****

[HB88]

While I hope CCH's success follows a similar pattern, I think it important to note that CCH's record in his first five years has come against a significantly weaker conference. When Johnson started his tenure, Marshall (left his second season, I think), APSU and GSU were all still heavyweights in the SC.

[The Jackal]

While I hope CCH's success follows a similar pattern, I think it important to note that CCH's record in his first five years has come against a significantly weaker conference. When Johnson started his tenure, Marshall (left his second season, I think), APSU and GSU were all still heavyweights in the SC.

I think this is just another form of bias, in my opinion.

One's perception of how good or bad Furman was in the past is just our own personal observations filtered through the lens of history.

Sure, App State and GSU were still around. They were generally pretty good. They were not the only teams Furman played, though.

Samford, who was a doormat for decades. Wofford was just transitioning from the DII ranks in the mid 90s. Furman played Elon a few times, which I think was still DII. VMI was terrible. UTC and WCU were generally bad. The list goes on.

I say that as someone who went to Furman during the years of the "big three." Furman generally only had to show up for two games a year - App and GSU. There were not too many teams on the schedule that were a genuine threat to beat us.

So, sure, there were some good teams in those days. There were also some really bad teams.

[Afurmanfan]

And realize the difference in Furman’s recruiting situation back then versus now. We were the default program for fairly good students who didn’t get offered by Clemson, USC, Wake, Duke, Ga Tech etc.
There was no Mercer, UNCC, Coastal, Charleston Southern, etc.- the talent base is much more diluted now than what Furman had in the 80’s and 90’s.
And our academic requirements are tougher now also.
Look at who we beat for most of our recruits- the military academies and the Ivy League. We are having to go to Texas, Ohio, TN etc. It used to be approx. 70% GA with SC and NC filling the balance of recruits.
It is a much different recruiting landscape now.